Pages of History: Russian boats off the coast of Del Norte

Russian fishing boats appear to be out in force with 17 reported off the Del Norte-Humboldt coast Wednesday and Thursday.

All of the vessels were outside the 12-mile limit in the Redding Rock area. Last week a Soviet vessel was boarded in the same area by a U.S. Coast Guard party, but the ship was allowed to proceed back out to international waters.

The Russian fleet, which was spread over a wide area, was observed by commercial fishermen, the Cutter Comanche out of Eureka and a patrol plane from San Francisco.

The airplane crew reported that 13 of the vessels were 13-16 miles off shore.

Editorial on education

The average high school graduate is uneducated and unskilled and this, says Jenking Lloyd Jones, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is an exercise in futility.

Some headway is being made to change this, but it is true that the high school system is still oriented as it was 60 years ago to the production of future clerks and white-collar workers on the low-end of the scale and college-entrance material on the upper end.

“We have the silly idea,” Jones says, “that vocational training is degrading.” We have long argued against the sentimental but unrealistic idea that everybody is “college material.” There are a great many examples of the need for vocational training and the successful, happy lives it can bring.

Some young people have the inclination to go to college and most have the ability to succeed in college, if they are motivated. But for those who are not, vocational training is needed. Perhaps the school should not have the full burden, but it can develop basic skills and help channel our young people into training that will give them a chance to lead productive, happy and financially secure lives.

Hitch-hiking squirrel

The engine was chattering, apparently, so a carload of teenage boys pulled up and piled out of their car with tools and rags.

One, who didn’t have tools, ran to raise the hood and the rest gathered around. Suddenly, they all jumped back, startled. But they weren’t nearly as startled as the obviously angry grey squirrel which scrambled from beneath the hood as it came up.

The squirrel literally flew across a yard, leaped over a dog and climbed a nearby tree.

Mrs. Clarence Yost, who observed the scene, said the squirrel was still mad, and still up the tree, three days later.

The boys? They closed the hood and drove off. Their engine problems solved — for the moment.

Del Norte’s yesterdays

Big news in The Triplicate on July 30, 1937, was that an airplane was used for the first time in Del Norte to drop supplies to firefighters.

The plane from Portland stocked in Grants Pass for five flights to the Summit Valley area of Big Flat, dropping supplies to 50 CCC and forest service fighters battling a blaze at Goose Creek.

Also, there was talk in Del Norte and Siskiyou counties of a road down the Klamath River.